A data center perspective
When data center technologies collide
The software-defined data center meets the reality-defined facility
“Software-defined“ is a new buzzword
around the data center industry. It started
with software-defined networking,
branched out to software-defined
storage, merged with server virtualization
and voilà—the data center has been
virtualized. People are embracing the
concept that promises to streamline
application deployment and automatically
provision and re-provision based on the
fluctuations in IT load.
But hold on a moment. I‘ve been in a lot of data centers and
not one of them has given any hint that it might be softwaredefined. I‘ve seen a lot of servers humming away, performing
their invisible tasks, and perhaps living a virtual, softwaredefined existence. Similarly for networks and storage, how they
segment and organize their network packets or disk sectors
to support more flexible ways to allocate resources seems like
a largely software-defined problem that is ripe for a softwaredefined solution.
But, what about the physical infrastructure? For instance, the
chillers and CRAHs that keep those servers cooled, or the
switchgear, transformers, UPS and PDUs that keep everything
powered. I have yet to see a software-defined air economizer
and I don’t hold out much hope of ever encountering one.
The interface between the virtual, software-defined world and
the real, physical, error-prone world is one which is necessary
to think about whenever you plan to deploy any level of data
center management. In particular, any system that promises to
streamline and automate the time-consuming and error-prone
processes that IT departments deal with today is ripe for the
application of the law of unintended consequences.
Creating a software-defined data center that deals with the
“brains“ of the data center (i.e., the IT infrastructure) without
incorporating the underlying physical systems reminds me of
creating an operating system without any notion of the computer it is running on. It‘s been done successfully many times, but
it starts by abstracting the underlying hardware into a welldefined Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). The HAL provides all
the mechanisms that the operating system needs to run, and if
properly implemented, run extremely well.
What software-defined data centers (SDDC) need to be successful is a well-defined data center “facilities HAL” or data
center infrastructure abstraction (DCIA). The DCIA would offer
a set of services that inform the SDDC about the status of the
data center physical infrastructure, plus provide mechanisms to
alter it. This DCIA fits squarely into the scope of a data center
infrastructure management (DCIM) system, such as ABB Decathlon®.
Without a DCIM system, the SDDC is required to make assumptions about the current condition of the underlying infrastructure—specifically, that everything is operating smoothly and that
changes will not have any adverse effect. This can be loosely
translated to‚ ‘assume I am running in a Tier 4 datacenter with
perfect 72 degree cooling throughout and unlimited, access to
low-cost energy‘.
The real world differs somewhat from this, at least for most.
Temperatures are not always even or consistent. Humans
sometimes make mistakes and plug things into the wrong
socket. Equipment fails or requires maintenance.
Let’s look at some examples of how the DCIM can help the
SDDC make better choices about where to provision workload
in a typical data center.
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• The SDDC decides to automatically provision additional compute for a web-based application for which usage is
spiking. What it doesn‘t know is the servers it has chosen to
use are in the middle of a data center hot zone, made hotter by
current high outdoor temperatures. A DCIM system can provide
real-time summary information about the environmental conditions in any area of the data center. Using this information, the
SDDC can choose different servers to provision.
• Similarly, the DCIM system can provide the SDDC information about power loading on the circuits or if, for example,
the system is presently running on UPS or backup power.
With a facilities abstraction layer provided by the DCIM system,
the SDDC now improves the reliability of the IT infrastructure by
actively managing the IT load. Therefore, based on an overall
“degree of reliability“ metric calculated by the DCIM system,
the SDDC can decide to automatically re-provision applications
away from at-risk servers, or at-risk data centers, in the event
of a major equipment failure or even an approaching weatherrelated event.
The SDDC and DCIM are two trends in computing that seem
destined to intertwine. Innovative companies looking to deploy
SDDC would do well to examine how their software-defined
world and their real-world facilities intersect. A good marriage
between the two will yield benefits beyond ease of deployment.
Higher reliability and lower operating costs are also achievable.
A data center perspective by:
Richard Ungar
Global head of R&D for ABB Decathlon for
DCIM, leading both business growth and
product development in North America.
3BUS095802
It would even be possible to use this approach to drive costoptimization protocols, where the DCIM system will calculate a
‘cost of operations’ metric, in real-time, based on the local set
of servers, real-time energy pricing, and real-time cooling pricing (which can vary based on environmental and other physical
conditions). The SDDC can then make informed decisions on
when and where to allocate compute to maximize cost savings.